by Andre van der Merwe
Daily Lobo
North Dakota State wouldn't go down that easily.
That didn't stop the UNM women's basketball team as it kicked its defense up a notch in the second half to secure a 75-59 victory at The Pit on Saturday night.
The win gave No. 18 UNM (8-2) the Lobo Shootout Tournament Championship, while the Bison (4-3) had to settle for second place. The Lobos advanced to the final round of the tournament after beating the University of Louisiana at Monroe 70-57 on Friday night.
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"I thought we made great adjustments in the second half," Lobo head coach Don Flanagan said about the team's second-half lockdown. "They only shot 36 percent in the second half."
Only two players for North Dakota proved to be troublesome on the offensive side of the ball. Danni Heintzelmen and Lisa Bue found holes in the Lobo defense and scored a combined 35 points for the Bison.
However, the Lobo defense did a good job holding down North Dakota's leading scorer Katie Lorenz, who averaged 13 points per game heading into Saturday night. Lorenz was held to only 11 percent shooting, going 1-of-9 from the field. She scored two points in the first half and was held to zero points in the second half.
For the second night in a row the Lobos had four players in double-digit scoring. Julie Briody led the team with 16 points. Sophomore forward Dionne Marsh chipped in 15 points, and Jana Francis tacked on 11 to the scoreboard for the Lobos.
Senior Abbie Letz was named tournament MVP and finished Saturday night with a double-double. Letz scored 13 points and pulled down 14 rebounds for UNM. Letz filled up more than just the point and rebound columns of the stat sheet, also finishing with five assists, three blocks and a steal.
The Bison kept it close early, and at 1:57 in the first half, they were only down three points at 31-28.
Then Katie Montgomery took over, drawing two fouls and sinking 3-of-4 free throws with under 1:30 left in the half.
She stole a pass in the closing seconds and launched a half-court buzzer beater that found the bottom of the net to boost the Lobos to a seven-point lead heading into the locker room.
Flanagan said Montgomery's shot helped fire up the team.
"She did a nice job, too. I thought the momentum swung when we hit that long shot at halftime," he said.
To open the second half, the Lobos once again started to pull away. They grabbed their first double-digit lead of the game in the first four minutes of the second half.
However, foul trouble with Jana Francis and Marsh helped the Bison back in the game. At 13:04 both Francis and Marsh had three fouls, and were on and off the bench from then on. This gave an opening to the Bison, who came back on a 7-0 run to pull them back within five points of the Lobos.
With 2:45 left in the game, a drive by Briody gave the Lobos their biggest lead of the night at 69-53, and UNM never looked back.
Flanagan said the team played well on both sides of the ball, something that can lead to more success throughout the season.
"If we can continue to shoot at that rate, between 45 and 50 percent, it's going to be hard for teams to beat us, because our defense is pretty good," he said.
